Defendants ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution

FARMINGTON — A Kirtland woman was sentenced to two years and a month in prison for her role in submitting 18,765 false claims for reimbursement from Medicaid.

Rosita Toledo, 48, was sentenced today in federal court in Albuquerque, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

After serving her prison sentence, she will be on three years of supervised release and required to perform 40 hours of community service during that time.

Toledo and her co-defendant, Cory Werito, 33, of Farmington, are ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution.

Toledo faced nine charges of health care fraud after being indicted in June 2016. Werito faced similar charges in addition to a charge of aggravated currency structuring.

The fraud charges were issued because Toledo and Werito created and operated a Farmington-based nonemergency medical transportation company, CW Transport. The company provided transportation services to Arizona Medicaid recipients and was funded by reimbursements from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

CW Transport collected more than $1.9 million in reimbursements between 2011 and 2013 by submitting more than 18,000 claims.

A majority of the claims were wholly or substantially false and fraudulent, the release states.

Toledo pleaded guilty to one charge of health care fraud on March 30 and admitted her role in the scheme.